The invention relates to the pyrimidinic compound 2-4-4-4-(chloropyrazole-1-yl) butyl!-1-pyperazinyl! pyrimidine, which has the following structural formula: ##STR1## generically termed Lesopitron, which exhibits pharmacological activity over the central nervous system, particularly an anxiolytic, tranquilizing and antidepressant activity. It can also be used in the treatment of dyskinesias, Parkinsonism and drug induced psychoses, in the treatment of cognitive functions, inhibition of the withdrawal symptoms, and in treatment vomit and gastric secretion related problems.
The synthesis of the compound and an account of its therapeutical properties are described in patents EP 382637B1, EP 429360B1, EP 497658A1 and FR 9314102.
Lesopitron dihydrochloride is particularly important in that it allows for the Lesopitron to be conveniently formulated, for instance, in tablets for oral administration. Therefore, there is the need to produce Lesopitron dihydrochloride in pure and crystalline form, in order to comply with the pharmaceutical requirements and specifications. The patent EP 382637B1 describes a process for the preparation of Lesopitron dihydrochloride.
From the point of view of its application for pharmaceutical use, it was important to obtain, at least, a single crystalline form of Lesopitron dihydrochloride which could be manufactured, stored and formulated without losing the required specifications of a pure pharmaceutical product. During the preparation of samples of Lesopitron dihydrochloride, it was observed that said samples did not meet a unique criterion with respect to their infrared spectrum. A closer study resulted in the unexpected discovery that the corresponding differences were not associated to impurities, but to the existence of a phenomenon of polymorphism. The authors of the present invention have discovered that, depending on the crystallization conditions of the samples of Lesopitron dihydrochloride, different crystalline forms are obtained, observing that they differ not only in their infrared spectrum but in their X-ray diffraction patterns as well.